This guide is intended for anybody who wants to install Arch Linux from any other running Linux -- be it off a LiveCD or a pre-existing install of a different distro.

This guide is intended for anybody who wants to install Arch Linux from any other running Linux -- be it off a LiveCD or a pre-existing install of a different distro.

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This is useful for building up new Arch Linux systems from scratch from another distro's LiveCD or existing installation. It is also useful for creating new chroot environments on a "host" system, maintaining a "golden-master" for development & distribution, or other fun topics like [[Diskless_network_boot_NFS_root|rootfs-over-NFS for diskless machines]].

This guide requires that the existing host system be able to execute the new target Arch Linux architecture programs. In the case of an x86_64 host, it is possible to use i686-pacman to build a 32-bit chroot environment. See [[Arch64 Install bundled 32bit system]]. However it is not so easy to build a 64-bit environment when the host only supports running 32-bit programs.

This guide requires that the existing host system be able to execute the new target Arch Linux architecture programs. In the case of an x86_64 host, it is possible to use i686-pacman to build a 32-bit chroot environment. See [[Arch64 Install bundled 32bit system]]. However it is not so easy to build a 64-bit environment when the host only supports running 32-bit programs.

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If you are already using Arch, instead of following this guide, just install {{Pkg|arch-install-scripts}} from the [[Official Repositories|official repositories]] and follow the [[Installation Guide]].

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{{Note|If you are already using Arch, instead of following this guide, just install {{Pkg|arch-install-scripts}} from the [[Official Repositories|official repositories]] and follow the [[Installation Guide]]}}

'''This guide provides additional steps to the [[Installation Guide]]. The steps of that guide must still be followed as needed.'''

'''This guide provides additional steps to the [[Installation Guide]]. The steps of that guide must still be followed as needed.'''

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Line 26:

Follow the [[Installation Guide]] steps, until you have your partitions, keyboard and internet connection ready.

Follow the [[Installation Guide]] steps, until you have your partitions, keyboard and internet connection ready.

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==Setup the enviroment for the arch install scripts==

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==Setup the environment for pacman==

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You need to create an enviroment where pacman and the arch install scripts, can run on your current linux distro. In addition you will need a list of pacman mirror sites which are going to be used to download data on available packages as well as the packages themselves.

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You need to create an environment where ''pacman'' and the ''arch install scripts'' can run on your current linux distro. (If you choose the Method 2, only pacman is necessary)

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{{Note|Choose one of this methods to create an environment able to execute the arch install scripts. That environment is '''not''' your final installation. You still need to do the rest of steps}}

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Here a different methods to prepare that enviroment:

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There are in principle two different methods to prepare that environment: either by '''installing pacman natively (Method 4 below)''' on your linux distro or by setting up a '''chroot environment'''.

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The latter way will generally be easier and is discussed next:

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===Method: Installing pacman and other packages directly under your current distro===

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There are two possible ways of using the ''chroot'' method:

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{{Out of date|Needs to be updated for pacman 4, use another method instead}}

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* '''Using chroot as an installation environment''': The prepared Archlinux chroot environment will be used temporarily to set up the actual Archlinux installation using the ''arch-install-scripts''. This is a bit more work and takes longer but once you set up the installation system you can quickly install several Archlinux systems. '''However''', if you want to set up only a single Archlinux this might be overkill. You are actually setting up the system twice, have a lot more network traffic and especially need a lot more RAM and disk space, mostly due to the quite big iso image.

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====Introduction====

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You need to get the required packages for your host Linux environment. The examples given here assume you are using an i686 environment. '''If you are running on a 64-bit Linux instead you should replace each occurrence of "i686" with "x86_64".'''

+

* '''Installing Archlinux directly/Direct Bootstrapping''': Thanks to tokland's ''arch-bootstrap'' script this method is effectively a one-liner and very fast. After that one line of code your Archlinux base system is installed to disk. '''However''', if setting up multiple copies of Archlinux, this method requires the re-downloading of the base packages every time, so is slower.

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All version numbers given here may change. Please check the version numbers the packages are at first and note them down. The version numbers can be found at:

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The best advice is probably to use '''Direct bootstrapping''' to set up only a small number of systems. If you set up many Archlinux systems the '''chroot install environment''' or even the '''native pacman''' installation might suit you better.

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* {{pkg|pacman}}

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* {{pkg|pacman-mirrorlist}}

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Once you are sure of the version numbers, download the required packages (change the value of ARCH to either x86_64 or i686, see above):

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===Method 1: Chroot into LiveCD-image===

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ARCH=i686

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It is possible to mount the root image of the latest Archlinux installation media and then chroot into it. This method has the advantage of providing you with a working Arch Linux installation right within your host system without the need to prepare it by installing specific packages.

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base_chroot=/tmp

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mkdir ${base_chroot}/archlinux

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cd ${base_chroot}/archlinux

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====Download pacman's binaries and shared libraries====

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{{Note|Before proceeding, make sure the latest version of [http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/ squashfs] is installed on the host system. Otherwise you will get errors like: {{ic|FATAL ERROR aborting: uncompress_inode_table: failed to read block}}.}}

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You want to install pacman in order to be able to install software in your new base directory. We first download the binaries for [[pacman]], the Arch package manager.

or this direct way (give attention to the date string in the file name, as it may need changing) :

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* The root image can be found on one of the mirrors under either arch/x86_64/ or arch/i686/ depending on the desired architecture. The squashfs format is not editable so we unsquash the root image and then mount it.

To prepare for using pacman, do not forget to edit {{Ic|/tmp/archlinux/etc/pacman.conf}} to point to {{Ic|/tmp/archlinux/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist}} and select your favorite mirror. For easier use (assuming you are using {{Ic|bash}} or {{Ic|zsh}}), you may set up an environment:

This method will install a basic Archlinux system directly onto your previously prepared root file system mounted as {{ic|/mnt}}. This is known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#Computing bootstrapping] and is definitely the '''quickest way''' to install a single Archlinux system from a foreign distribution. Moreover, it is less disk consuming as method 1 as it does not require to download the whole Archlinux installation image. Therefore bootstrapping is the method of choice for installing Archlinux on a '''remote host''', such as a virtual root server using some arbitrary GNU/Linux-based rescue environment.

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{{Note|('''Issues while running pacman on 64-bit host''') If while running pacman you end up with {{ic|/tmp/archlinux/usr/bin/pacman: No such file or directory}} please symlink ld-linux-x86-64.so.2: {{ic|ln -s /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 /lib/}}}}

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As described in the [[Installation Guide]] we assume your disk which should become your root device is mountet at {{ic|/mnt}}. At first grab ''tokland's'' ''arch-bootstrap'' script, c.f. [[Archbootstrap]],

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If you do not mind littering your install host, you can extract all the downloaded tar balls into your root directory by running as root:

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# cd /tmp

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{{Note|However, keep in mind that this operation could erase some of your files, and break your system.}}

This script will bootstrap a basic archlinux system, i.e., it will download the linux kernel, pacman basic tools like bash and all needed dependencies and unpack them to the given directory, in this case {{ic|/mnt}}.

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<li><div>If installing from Ubuntu 9.10's LiveCD (perhaps other versions), you will need more than just the pacman files (shared libs) to use pacman at all. Use Lucky's script described in [[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=759166 this thread]] to get/install them for you!

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</div></li>

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<li><div>Alternatively, you can instead turn these tarballs into packages for your distribution with the [http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/alien/ alien] tool. See the man page of the tool for instructions. The packages created that way may be installed into your host distribution using the usual package management tools available there. This approach offers the best integration into the host Linux environment. For a Debian package based system this is done with the following commands:

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cd /tmp/archlinux

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alien -d pacman-*-i686.pkg.tar.xz

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alien -d pacman-mirrorlist-20120626-1-any.pkg.tar.xz

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RPM based systems will need to replace the parameter "-d" with "-r".

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These distribution packages can then get installed using the normal package management tools of the host Linux environment.

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</div></li>

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<li><div>

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Under Fedora 12, I was not able to install pacman with any of the other methods, but with the nice script at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=734336#p734336 it will download and install it for you. Worked wonderfully for me.

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</div></li>

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<li><div>On [http://gentoo.org/ Gentoo]: Just unmask pacman by adding {{Ic|sys-apps/pacman}} to {{Ic|/etc/portage/package.keywords}}. Now just run {{Ic|emerge -av pacman}}.

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There is also a [http://ohnopub.net/~ohnobinki/gentoo/arch/ more detailed tutorial].

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</div></li>

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</ol>

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=== Method: Use the alternate easier method ===

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{{Out of date|Needs to be updated for the new install scripts}}

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This method is verified to be working as of 1-4-12.

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This works best if you are in a LiveCD environment (or, in the case of servers, a GNU/Linux-based rescue environment). Firstly, you need to mount the disk you want to use for the Archlinux installation at /mnt. In this example, /dev/sda1 is used.

Choose a bootloader. You can find the installation instructions on their own dedicated pages. ([[Syslinux]], [[Grub]], [[Grub2]], etc.).

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Now everything is prepared to chroot into your newly installed Arch environment

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# chroot /mnt bash

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'''Remember:''' You will still need to do any final configuration touches as you would in a normal Arch install.

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Before you can use ''pacman'' you have to initialize its keyring as explained below, in [[#Fix the Pacman Signature Keyring]].

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''Credits to the Turkish site [http://raptiye.org/blog/2011/3/27/hetznerde-arch-linux-kurulumu/ Raptiye] for the original guide.''

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From here on proceed with [[Installation Guide#Install the base system]], '''but''' remember, you are already working in your final system, thus no need for {{ic|pacstrap}}, simply use {{ic|pacman}}. So the next command you are most likely to execute will be

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# pacman -S base # and possibly also base-devel

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===Method: Chroot into the Arch Linux LiveCD===

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===Method 3: Bootstrapping the arch installation scripts===

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Alternatively, you can mount the root image of the latest archlinux installation media and then chroot into it. This method has the advantage of providing you with a working Arch Linux installation right within your host system without the need to prepare it by installing specific packages.

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Contrary to the other methods, '''this method is one-step only'''; you only have to execute the script below and thats it.

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====Unsquash the root image====

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This method can be considered an hybrid between Method 1 and Method 2. It provides a chroot enviroment from where to execute the arch install scripts (similar to Method 1), by using a bootstrapping script (similar to Method 2).

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The root image exists in squashfs format on the Live CD. The squashfs format is not editable as such. Hence, we unsquash the root image and then mount it.

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The script below is going to create a directory called {{ic|archinstall-pkg}} and download the required packages there. Then, is going to extract them into the {{ic|archinstall-chroot}} directory. Finally, is going to prepare mount points, configure pacman and enter into a chroot.

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{{Note|This is '''only''' an enviroment to execute the arch install scripts: '''this is not your final installation'''. }}

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To unsquash the root image, run

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This chroot is able to execute the arch install scripts. '''The destination partitions should be mounted under the {{ic|/mnt}} directory from this chroot'''. After that, continue with the next step, which is [[#Fix the Pacman Signature Keyring]].

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unsquashfs -d /squashfs-root root-image.fs.sfs

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====Mount root file system====

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'''CHROOT_DIR=archinstall-chroot Must Change First, or you might ruin your /etc/'''

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Then, mount the unsquashed root file system to a suitable mount point. We shall mount it to /arch. You can mount it wherever you want.

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livecd_arch=/arch

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mount -B /squashfs-root ${livecd_arch}

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====Chroot into the Live CD root file system====

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Mount various file systems into the Live CD root file system:

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mount -t proc /proc ${livecd_arch}/proc

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mount -t sysfs /sys ${livecd_arch}/sys

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mount -B /dev ${livecd_arch}/dev

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mount -t devpts /dev/pts ${livecd_arch}/dev/pts

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Then, chroot into the Live CD root file system:

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chroot ${livecd_arch} /bin/bash

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This chroot is able to execute the arch install scripts. The destination partitions should be mounted under the {{ic|/mnt}} directory from this chroot.

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===Method: Script to bootstrap the arch install scripts===

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You can run the following script to automatically download the minimum packages required to run pacman and the arch install scripts.

{{Warning|This method is potentially difficult, your mileage may vary from distro to distro. If you just want to do an arch installation from another distro and you are not interested in have pacman as a regular program under such distro, is better to use a different method.}}

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The script is going to create a directory called {{ic|archinstall-pkg}} and download the required packages there. Then, is going to extract them into the {{ic|archinstall-chroot}} directory.

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After that, is going to prepare mount points, configure pacman and enter into a chroot.

+

This method is about installing pacman and the arch install scripts directly under another distro, so they become regular programs on that distro.

−

This chroot is able to execute the arch install scripts. The destination partitions should be mounted under the {{ic|/mnt}} directory from this chroot.

+

This is really useful if you are planning to use another distro regularly to install arch linux, or do fancy things like updating packages of an arch installation using another distro. This is the only method that not imply creating a chroot to be able to execute pacman and the arch install scripts. (but since part of the installation includes entering inside a chroot, you'll end using a chroot anyway)

+

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==== Download pacman source code and pacman packages ====

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Visit the pacman homepage: https://www.archlinux.org/pacman/#_releases and download the latest release.

Using your distribution mechanisms, install the required packages for pacman and the arch install scripts. libcurl, libarchive, fakeroot, xz, asciidoc, wget, and sed are among them. Of course, gcc, make and maybe some other "devel" packages are necessary too.

If you get errors here, chances are you are missing dependencies, or your current libcurl, libarchive or others, are too old. Install the dependencies missing using your distro options, or if they are too old, compile them from source.

+

* Compile {{bc|make}}

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* If there were no errors, install the files {{bc|make install}}

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* You may need to manually call {{ic|ldconfig}} to make your distro detect libalpm.

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==== Prepare configuration files ====

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Now is time to extract the configuration files. Change the x86_64 as necessary.

Another option is using the {{ic|alien}} tool to convert the {{ic|pacman-mirrorlist}} and {{ic|arch-install-scripts}} (but no {{ic|pacman}}) to native packages of your distro.

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==Fix the Pacman Signature Keyring==

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+

It is necessary to initialize ''pacman's'' keyring for signature checking.

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+

This is done using

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# pacman-key --init # read the note below!

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# pacman-key --populate archlinux

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+

'''However''', when connected via SSH you might run out of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(computing) entropy]. In this case you can try something like

+

+

# cat /usr/bin/* > /dev/null &

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# find / > /dev/null &

+

+

before executing {{ic|pacman-key --init}}.

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+

It might take some time. If nevertheless all this does help install {{Pkg|haveged}} and run prior to {{ic|pacman-key --init}}

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# /usr/sbin/haveged -w 1024 -v 1

Line 254:

Line 236:

At this point, follow the normal steps of [[Installation Guide]]. Remember to mount the destination partition under the {{ic|/mnt}} of the chroot.

At this point, follow the normal steps of [[Installation Guide]]. Remember to mount the destination partition under the {{ic|/mnt}} of the chroot.

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After you have done {{ic|pacstrap /mnt base base-devel}}, do also

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# pacstrap /mnt base base-devel

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pacstrap /mnt haveged

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# # ...

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−

That is required later for fixing the pacman keyring.

===Edit the fstab file===

===Edit the fstab file===

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Probally the {{ic|genfstab}} script wont work. In that case, you'll need to edit the {{ic|/mnt/etc/fstab}} file by hand.

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Probably the {{ic|genfstab}} script won't work. In that case, you'll need to edit the {{ic|/mnt/etc/fstab}} file by hand.

You can use the content of {{ic|/etc/mtab}} as reference.

You can use the content of {{ic|/etc/mtab}} as reference.

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===Fix the Pacman Signature Keyring===

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−

After you have entered the {{ic|arch-chroot /mnt}}, is necessary to fix the pacman signature keyring.

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This will fix it:

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# /usr/sbin/haveged -w 1024 -v 1

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# pacman-key --init

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# pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/archlinux-keyring*

===Finish the Installation===

===Finish the Installation===

Now just do the rest of the steps normally.

Now just do the rest of the steps normally.

+

+

==Tips and tricks==

+

* In case you want to replace an existing system, but can for some reason not use a LiveCD, since, e.g., you have no physical access to the computer, the following tip might help: If you manage to get ~500MB of free space somewhere on the disk (e.g. by partitioning a swap partition) you can install the new Archlinux system there, reboot into the newly created system and [[Full_System_Backup_with_rsync#With_a_single_command|rsync the entire system]] to the primary partition. Finally don't forget to fix the bootloader configuration before rebooting.

This guide requires that the existing host system be able to execute the new target Arch Linux architecture programs. In the case of an x86_64 host, it is possible to use i686-pacman to build a 32-bit chroot environment. See Arch64 Install bundled 32bit system. However it is not so easy to build a 64-bit environment when the host only supports running 32-bit programs.

Prepare the system

Follow the Installation Guide steps, until you have your partitions, keyboard and internet connection ready.

Setup the environment for pacman

You need to create an environment where pacman and the arch install scripts can run on your current linux distro. (If you choose the Method 2, only pacman is necessary)

Note: Choose one of this methods to create an environment able to execute the arch install scripts. That environment is not your final installation. You still need to do the rest of steps

There are in principle two different methods to prepare that environment: either by installing pacman natively (Method 4 below) on your linux distro or by setting up a chroot environment.
The latter way will generally be easier and is discussed next:

There are two possible ways of using the chroot method:

Using chroot as an installation environment: The prepared Archlinux chroot environment will be used temporarily to set up the actual Archlinux installation using the arch-install-scripts. This is a bit more work and takes longer but once you set up the installation system you can quickly install several Archlinux systems. However, if you want to set up only a single Archlinux this might be overkill. You are actually setting up the system twice, have a lot more network traffic and especially need a lot more RAM and disk space, mostly due to the quite big iso image.

Installing Archlinux directly/Direct Bootstrapping: Thanks to tokland's arch-bootstrap script this method is effectively a one-liner and very fast. After that one line of code your Archlinux base system is installed to disk. However, if setting up multiple copies of Archlinux, this method requires the re-downloading of the base packages every time, so is slower.

The best advice is probably to use Direct bootstrapping to set up only a small number of systems. If you set up many Archlinux systems the chroot install environment or even the native pacman installation might suit you better.

Method 1: Chroot into LiveCD-image

It is possible to mount the root image of the latest Archlinux installation media and then chroot into it. This method has the advantage of providing you with a working Arch Linux installation right within your host system without the need to prepare it by installing specific packages.

Note: Before proceeding, make sure the latest version of squashfs is installed on the host system. Otherwise you will get errors like: FATAL ERROR aborting: uncompress_inode_table: failed to read block.

The root image can be found on one of the mirrors under either arch/x86_64/ or arch/i686/ depending on the desired architecture. The squashfs format is not editable so we unsquash the root image and then mount it.

To unsquash the x86_64 (or i686 respectively) root image, run

# unsquashfs -d /squashfs-root root-image.fs.sfs

Now you can loop mount the root image

# mkdir /arch
# mount -o loop /squashfs-root/root-image.fs /arch

Before chrooting to it, we need to set up some mount points and copy the resolv.conf for networking.

Now everything is prepared to chroot into your newly installed Arch environment

# chroot /arch bash

This chroot is able to execute the arch install scripts. The destination partitions should be mounted under the /mnt directory from this chroot.

Method 2: Direct bootstrapping Archlinux

This method will install a basic Archlinux system directly onto your previously prepared root file system mounted as /mnt. This is known as bootstrapping and is definitely the quickest way to install a single Archlinux system from a foreign distribution. Moreover, it is less disk consuming as method 1 as it does not require to download the whole Archlinux installation image. Therefore bootstrapping is the method of choice for installing Archlinux on a remote host, such as a virtual root server using some arbitrary GNU/Linux-based rescue environment.

As described in the Installation Guide we assume your disk which should become your root device is mountet at /mnt. At first grab tokland'sarch-bootstrap script, c.f. Archbootstrap,

This script will bootstrap a basic archlinux system, i.e., it will download the linux kernel, pacman basic tools like bash and all needed dependencies and unpack them to the given directory, in this case /mnt.

From here on proceed with Installation Guide#Install the base system, but remember, you are already working in your final system, thus no need for pacstrap, simply use pacman. So the next command you are most likely to execute will be

# pacman -S base # and possibly also base-devel

Method 3: Bootstrapping the arch installation scripts

Contrary to the other methods, this method is one-step only; you only have to execute the script below and thats it.

This method can be considered an hybrid between Method 1 and Method 2. It provides a chroot enviroment from where to execute the arch install scripts (similar to Method 1), by using a bootstrapping script (similar to Method 2).

The script below is going to create a directory called archinstall-pkg and download the required packages there. Then, is going to extract them into the archinstall-chroot directory. Finally, is going to prepare mount points, configure pacman and enter into a chroot.

Note: This is only an enviroment to execute the arch install scripts: this is not your final installation.

This chroot is able to execute the arch install scripts. The destination partitions should be mounted under the /mnt directory from this chroot. After that, continue with the next step, which is #Fix the Pacman Signature Keyring.

CHROOT_DIR=archinstall-chroot Must Change First, or you might ruin your /etc/

Method 4: Install pacman natively on non-arch distro (advanced)

Warning: This method is potentially difficult, your mileage may vary from distro to distro. If you just want to do an arch installation from another distro and you are not interested in have pacman as a regular program under such distro, is better to use a different method.

This method is about installing pacman and the arch install scripts directly under another distro, so they become regular programs on that distro.

This is really useful if you are planning to use another distro regularly to install arch linux, or do fancy things like updating packages of an arch installation using another distro. This is the only method that not imply creating a chroot to be able to execute pacman and the arch install scripts. (but since part of the installation includes entering inside a chroot, you'll end using a chroot anyway)

Install dependencies

Using your distribution mechanisms, install the required packages for pacman and the arch install scripts. libcurl, libarchive, fakeroot, xz, asciidoc, wget, and sed are among them. Of course, gcc, make and maybe some other "devel" packages are necessary too.

Compile pacman

If you get errors here, chances are you are missing dependencies, or your current libcurl, libarchive or others, are too old. Install the dependencies missing using your distro options, or if they are too old, compile them from source.

Compile

make

If there were no errors, install the files

make install

You may need to manually call ldconfig to make your distro detect libalpm.

Prepare configuration files

Now is time to extract the configuration files. Change the x86_64 as necessary.

Extract the pacman.conf and makepkg.conf files from the pacman package, and disable signature checking:

Fix the Pacman Signature Keyring

However, when connected via SSH you might run out of entropy. In this case you can try something like

# cat /usr/bin/* > /dev/null &
# find / > /dev/null &

before executing pacman-key --init.

It might take some time. If nevertheless all this does help install haveged and run prior to pacman-key --init

# /usr/sbin/haveged -w 1024 -v 1

Setup the target system

At this point, follow the normal steps of Installation Guide. Remember to mount the destination partition under the /mnt of the chroot.

# pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
# # ...

Edit the fstab file

Probably the genfstab script won't work. In that case, you'll need to edit the /mnt/etc/fstab file by hand.
You can use the content of /etc/mtab as reference.

Finish the Installation

Now just do the rest of the steps normally.

Tips and tricks

In case you want to replace an existing system, but can for some reason not use a LiveCD, since, e.g., you have no physical access to the computer, the following tip might help: If you manage to get ~500MB of free space somewhere on the disk (e.g. by partitioning a swap partition) you can install the new Archlinux system there, reboot into the newly created system and rsync the entire system to the primary partition. Finally don't forget to fix the bootloader configuration before rebooting.